Global Population Ageing

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

170 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.
The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website.

Population ageing is causing fundamental societal and economic change in many countries and regions throughout the world. Although the opportunities and challenges presented by ageing differ between countries and regions, a global perspective can inform the development of sound policy responses to help individuals and societies to manage the transition to an older population structure. This course guides students through a range of key issues that are faced by societies with population ageing, and encourages them to critically appraise specific policy responses and to identify practical lessons to be learned from the experiences of countries experiencing rapid and advanced ageing. Topics covered include health, mature age employment, retirement and finances, age-friendly housing and environments, wellbeing & community participation, advanced ageing countries and rapidly ageing countries.

On completion of this subject, students will be able to:

• Interpret data and identify specific demographic determinants of population ageing.
• Identify and contrast challenges and opportunities across a range of social and economic issues due to an ageing population.
• Critically analyse the range of policy responses that can address challenges of an ageing population.
• Formulate policy recommendations for countries that are projected to experience a rapidly ageing population in future.

• Weekly contributions to online discussions (500 word equivalent) (10%)
• Annotated slideshow (500 word equivalent), due Week 2 (10%)
• Written report (1000 words), due mid-term (20%)
• Report proposal (500 words), due Week 6 (10%)
• Final report (2500 words), due end of term (50%)

Students will have access to electronic copies of relevant readings

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students will be provided with the opportunity to practice and reinforce:

• Demonstrate the ability to identify, analyse and evaluate relevant information.
• High level written communication skills.
• Demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively with team members.
• Advance analytic, integration and problem-solving skills.
• Comparative policy analysis and research skills.